Forster's Tern

About the Forster's Tern

A slender, silvery tern with a deeply forked tail and light, buoyant flight, the Forster's Tern is a graceful sight over open water. In breeding dress it wears a sharp black cap and an orange bill tipped in black; in winter that cap dissolves into a bold black patch through the eye, a reliable field mark. Long-winged and elegant, it hovers and plunges with ease.

Forster's Terns feed by hovering over the water and diving headfirst for small fish and by hawking insects on the wing, coursing back and forth low over the surface.

In Texas the Forster's Tern is common - a migrant and winter bird on inland lakes and marshes and a year-round presence along the coast, where it works bays, channels, and shorelines.

A note from behind the lens: their steady hover-and-dive rhythm makes them wonderful flight subjects. Pan with a bird as it quarters the water, use a fast shutter to freeze the plunge, and try to catch the moment of the hover with light on that silvery plumage.